Cipriano Mera

Cipriano Mera (4 November 1897-24 October 1975) was a General of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War.

Biography
Cipriano Mera was born on 4 November 1897 in Madrid, Spain, and he became the leader of the Confederacion Nacional de Trabajo (CNT)'s construction union in his hometown. In June 1936, he was arrested for leading a strike of construction workers, electricians, and elevator operators, but he was released at the start of the Spanish Civil War and led the CNT in putting down uprisings by Nationalist Spain. Mera fought at the Battle of Guadalajara, Defense of Madrid, and the Battle of Brunete, and he was made a Lieutenant-Colonel in April 1938. However, he believed that the war was lost by 1939, so he sought to support Segismundo Casado in forming the Spanish National Defense Council, which was anti-Stalinist and anti-Juan Negrin. He helped in Casado's quelling of Luis Barcelo's rebellion with the former Negrin loyalists, and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 1943. However, he was set free in 1946 and died in Saint-Cloud on 24 October 1975.